Privacy campaigners call for people to stop looking at each other in the street

Keep your head down and avoid eye contact at all times

A formal complaint has been sent to the Information Commissioner following reports that members of the public are being observed in the street by hundreds of passersby. Individuals are being stopped by people they know but don’t like that much, strangers asking for directions or charitable donations, and in some cases students wielding clipboards and a resistance to standard put-downs.

There are concerns, though, that the complaint may fall on deaf ears as the Information Commissioner refuses to accept unsolicited correspondence. Campaigners are also planning to present a petition to Downing Street against this gross invasion of privacy, but so far passersby have been reluctant to stop and add their signatures.